This invention relates to improvements in methods and apparatus for transporting light wheeled vehicles, such as passenger cars and small trucks, on a transporting vehicle such as a ship, barge or railcar. More particularly, the invention relates to a system which enables standard, closed, dry-cargo containers, without any alteration to their structure, to enclose multiple tiers of wheeled vehicles within each container to protect such vehicles during shipment, and to support the vehicles during shipment in a very high-density, compact, many-tiered configuration to maximize the payload
Many different systems are currently used for the high-volume transportation of wheeled vehicles from their points of manufacture to their ultimate markets. For example, conventional open highway trailers such as those shown in Baker U.S. Pat. No. 2,492,829, Petersen U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,141, Fity et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,142 or British patent No. 1,006,496 have integral vertically-adjustable vehicle support assemblies onto which the vehicles are driven and supported at elevated positions. Alternatively, enclosed transport vehicles such as highway vans and railcars have been equipped with integral vehicle-support assemblies within their enclosures for supporting vehicles in vertically-spaced groups as shown, for example, in Linquist et al. U.S. Pat. No. 1,247,553, Hice U.S. Pat. No. 2,016,430, Fehr et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,098,184, Gutridge U.S. Pat. No. 3,498,480, Smith U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,455,119 and 4,597,712, Canadian patent No. 961,699 and French patent No. 1,202,387. However, a problem with structures having integral vehicle-support assemblies is that they are not readily adaptable to transport goods other than vehicles, and therefore cannot be efficiently utilized for the transport of other cargo on return trips. Also, those structures which are not enclosed expose the vehicles to external hazards from weather and flying debris during shipment, while those structures which are enclosed make securing of the vehicles compactly in elevated positions within their enclosures difficult and time-consuming because of limited access, unless expensive, automatically-operated vehicle-supporting structures are provided in each enclosure.
Support racks have been employed for loading cargo onto transporting vehicles such as a van, airplane, or ship as shown, for example, in Hackney U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,635, Nordstrom U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,119, and Yonahara WIPO publication document No. 81/01997, respectively. However, if the transporting vehicle has no protective enclosure, as in the case of an open railcar or truck trailer, or the exposed upper deck of a ship, no effective protection of the cargo from external hazards such as weather, flying debris, or seawater is provided since the racks are open-sided. Such racks cannot be of enclosed construction because access must be provided to secure the cargo to the racks. Moreover, such open rack structures provide no stable means capable of stacking wheeled vehicles atop one another in numerous tiers on any transporting vehicle. Even Yonahara's structure, which is stackable, is severely limited in this regard because its open-sided construction lacks the rigidity necessary for high stacking of wheeled vehicles.
What is needed therefore is a system for loading and transporting wheeled vehicles compactly stacked in numerous tiers above one another, and yet protected from all external hazards despite the absence of any protecting structure on the transporting vehicle itself. Moreover the system should provide for the return shipment of other types of cargo in a similarly stacked and protected condition.